Last May, I was targeted in the crackdown against student anti-war activists around the country. Socialist Alternative was helping to build the anti-war movement at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, including holding public organizing meetings on campus to democratically discuss the direction of the movement.

While I was trying to prepare for my finals, a UWM police officer showed up at my dorm several times to try and  interrogate me about an incident of “vandalism.” They woke me and my roommates up after midnight multiple times, and dragged me into the hallway in my nightclothes for questioning.

The alleged “vandalism” was chalk on a university sidewalk and posters taped around campus advertising an anti-war public meeting Socialist Alternative was holding. They asked for the names of other SA members, saying they just wanted to clarify the rules with the other members involved. When I refused to give the police contact information, they implied we would face legal charges and arrests. My roommates and I closed ranks and didn’t give them anything, refusing to answer their questions and didn’t bow to their intimidation.

Shortly after this, the charges were suddenly dropped. This wasn’t surprising to us; the police never had a real case that could stand up in a court, and they knew it! What they were attempting to do was baselessly intimidate young women participating in anti-war activism on campus.

At the start of the fall semester, the university posted new directives on “allowable free speech” aimed at restricting the activity of left-wing groups on campus and scaring other students away from joining the movement. We’ve been approached several times by police officers while tabling on campus in a continued attempt to intimidate us. 

Campus repression hasn’t stopped us from continuing to organize on campus against the war on Gaza and now against Trump. The best defense against police repression is a strong, growing movement that won’t be intimidated and can mobilize to defend student activists under attack. Even now as the crackdowns increase locally and nationally, we are still organizing and bringing new people into the movement. Join the fight today!